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Sunday, 16 May 2010

Last week, I competed in my two main events: the 1500m & the 3000m, in the Lancashire Track Champs at Blackpool. My goal for the championships was to secure two pbs, and if all went well, to gain two medals, and I achieved both these objectives.

My first race was the 1500m on the Saturday, and this wielded an unusually large field when compared to the normally depleted under 17 race, with a total of sixteen runners toeing the start line.

The field was drawn out from the off by my Lancaster team mate Beau Smith, who was aiming to dip under the ES qualifying time of 4.08, and by the end of the first lap, we were all in single file. With every lap, Beau increased his already massive lead, and I continued to hold on to 3rd place, sitting on the shoulder of Chorley Runner Luke Betts.

As we approached the last lap, my legs felt like lead, and I could really feel the lactic weighing me down, and at the same time, I could see Luke pulling away! When I finally reached the finishing straight, I put in a mad dash for the line, but with Luke some 25m ahead by this point, I was fighting a losing battle, and although I decreased the gap slightly, he still finished in silver medal position, with a time of 4.13, with me 4 seconds behind in 4.17.

On reflection, I suppose it was a good achiveiment for me, as I beat me preveious best time by 2 seconds, however I know that if I had not gone with the early fast pace, and had set my own rhythm, I could probably have run faster still!

Sunday, 25 April 2010

With my first track race of the 2010 season coming at the end of this week, I planned to crack out some quality sessions, in order to gain a bit of last minute speed. On the Monday, I completed a fartlek session, before embarking on my first track session of the week, a 2x1600m on the Tuesday. I did these reps in my new Saucony Fastwitch racing shoes, and found these to be a tremendous ride! The shoes almost simulated running barefoot, and I found them to be rapid and responsive, whilst still having enough cushioning to get me round the track 8 times! The day after this, I still felt well enough to endulge in a 5 mile easy run, before completing a 6x300m session, at about 800m race pace, on the Thursday.

On the Saturday, as planned, I competed in the 1500m at the midlancs league, finishing 2nd, in a new PB of 4.19. I was totally content with this, and I feel that later in the season, in cooler conditions, I will able to meet my season goal of 4.10

This week, the build up to my first track race, on the 24th April continued.I started the week with an easy 4 miler before completing a trecherous 7x400m session on the Tuesday, all in about 67 seconds. I had a rest on the Wednesday, which was my birthday, before commiting myself to hard 3 mile run, at threshold pace on the Thursday. On the Sunday, I completed another steady 4 mile run,similar to the one I completed on the Monday.

Sunday, 4 April 2010

It's just occured to me that I didn't really introduce myself before posting my first blog last week! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Callum Mason, I'm 15, and have run for my local athletics club, Lancaster and Morecambe AC since I was 12 years old. My favourite discipline to compete over is the cross country, but over the last three years, I have competed in a variety of track, fell and road races as well. My proudest achievements to date include finishing 4th at the English Schools Fell Championships, recording a time of 9.31 in the 3000m and representing my county, Lancashire in cross country. In the not too distant future, my main aim is to gain selection to go to the holy grail of Junior Athletics- The English Schools T&F Champs, whilst long term, I just wish to continue enjoying my athletics, and continuing to strive to be the best I can be, in whatever I am competing in.

This week, I attempted to step my training up a little, to get ready for the start of the track season in mid-April. I completed a 2km time trial on the Tuesday of this week, and recorded a respectable time of 6.11, which I was fairly pleased with, considering the atrocious conditions that I was up against! I completed another track session on the Thursday, which went less well for me, but I guess this is to be expected following the taxing time-trial just 48 hours earlier. Today (Sunday) I competed in a 5k in Alexndra Park- Manchester, where I finished 6th with a time of 17.30, just 20 seconds off my best. I would thouroughly recommend this race to anybody wanting a PB over the distance, as the course was flat, well marshalled and the race itself was cheap to enter. I hope to compete thereagain later in the year, if I get the chance.

Friday, 26 March 2010

After a long cross country season, spanning seven months and including over fifteen races, I've been mainly resting this week, and have only completed two sessions, a 5x1000m, and 6x500m. My main goals for this coming track season are to dip under the 4.15 mark for 1500m, and go sub 9.10 for 3000m. Who knows, if things go really well, I could possibly qualify for the English Schools Championships for the first time, but for now, I'm just focusing on getting the speedwork done, to lay the foundations for a really good summer!